Fragments of Us | yuji itadori

chapter 3

Author's note:

i honestly don't know where this story is going neither do I know what's going on in my life but oh well :D

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“Are you REALLY really sure it’s okay for me to stay here?” Yuji asked, his voice filled with uncertainty as he glanced around the apartment. “I mean, I don’t want to impose…”

Yushi waved him off, her expression trying to mask the odd tugging feeling in her chest. “You’re not imposing. It’s fine. We’ll figure this out, and until then, you’ll have a place to sleep. Plus, it’ll be easier for us to work together if you’re close by.”

Yuji’s face softened in gratitude, and Yushi caught the subtle resemblance to the version of him she had lost—his eyes, that unassuming warmth, even the way his smile crinkled the corners of his mouth.

As the sun set, they got to work. Yushi pulled out her laptop, which was casting a soft glow across the room. She couldn’t shake the tension that seemed to coil tighter around her with each passing moment, especially as she stole a glance at Yuji sitting across from her. His face was bathed in the same dim light, his expression focused as he skimmed through yet another article about interdimensional travel.

Yuji sat across from her at the dining table, the remnants of their dinner still scattered in front of them. They had spent the first few hours scouring the internet for information, looking for anything that might give them clues as to how Yuji could return to his universe. Unfortunately, every lead seemed to end in a dead end.

Yushi felt a pang in her chest, wondering if he was thinking about her alternate self, the version of her that had loved him.

"Found anything?" Yushi asked, her voice trying to sound casual, though it came out heavier than she intended.

Yuji sighed and leaned back, rubbing his eyes. "Nothing useful. It's like we’re running in circles."

“I found Nothing aswell.” Yushi muttered, frustrated as she clicked through another page. “All the articles are either pseudoscience or too vague to be useful. There’s no reliable information on how to travel between universes.”

Yuji leaned back in his chair, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah, it’s not like alternate universe travel is something people talk about over coffee,” he joked, though there was a heavy undercurrent to his words.

Yushi let out a tired chuckle. “Yeah, right. If only it were that simple.”

Yuji's fingers brushed over the screen as if wishing for an answer to appear. "I keep thinking… what if we're missing something obvious? Something right in front of us."

"Right," Yushi murmured, turning her eyes back to her own screen. She hadn’t really been reading for the past hour, too distracted by the strange undercurrent between them. "It’s just… there are so many possibilities, but none of them feel real."

They fell into a comfortable silence, the low hum of the refrigerator the only sound in the room as they each lost themselves in their respective thoughts,the weight of unanswered questions thick in the air. Yushi felt the weight of everything pressing down on her—the mystery of Yuji’s arrival, the looming question of how they’d ever get him back, and the inexplicable tension between them.

She’d offered to help him out of an innate kindness, but now that he was here, she felt herself unraveling. Yushi’s mind wandered as her fingers scrolled aimlessly. She didn’t understand why she felt so off-kilter. Yuji had been here only a few days, and yet, his presence seemed to shift something in her world.